The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems and more particularly to a method and system for performing call blocking based upon call properties.
Payphones may be utilized in a number of different ways. In the traditional approach, a caller deposits coins in a coin slot on a payphone to cover the cost of placing a call. After depositing the coins, the caller dials the desired telephone number to initiate the phone call. The amount of money that needs to be deposited in the coin slot depends upon the nature of the call. Long distance calls generally require more money to be deposited than local calls. A portion of the deposited money is given to the payphone owner to cover the cost associated with a wear-and-tear on the payphone and to provide some profit.
Payphones, however, are being increasingly used to place telephone calls in other ways. Callers are increasingly placing non-toll calls which do not always require the caller to deposit coins in the coin slots of the payphones. Examples of such non-toll calls include toll-free 8XX calls, calling card calls, collect calls and operated-assisted xe2x80x9cbilled-to-third partyxe2x80x9d calls. With each of these types of calls, no portion of the revenue obtained for the call is shared with the payphone owner. As a result, payphone owners have objected to the allocation of revenues resulting from such non-toll calls. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued a mandate that requires reimbursement of the owner of payphones for non-toll calls. Thus, inter-exchange carriers (IXCs) must pay a surcharge to payphone owners each time a call originates from a payphone. This charge is passed on to the customers that request toll-free number service. Given that these parties are already paying to provide such toll-free number service, the need to pay the surcharge can be especially frustrating.
The present invention provides a way for minimizing the need to pay such surcharges by facilitating the blocking of calls originating from payphones. More generally, the present invention facilitates the blocking of calls based upon properties of the call. xe2x80x9cBlocking, in this context, refers to preventing a call from completing. Calls may be blocked based upon characteristics of the call initiation site, including the geographic location of the call initiation site. The blocking of calls may be based upon additional call properties, such as when the call was initiated (time of day, day of the week, day of the year, etc.).
The present invention may be especially useful to customers that run toll-free number services, such as 8XX services. Many of these customers may not wish to be forced to reimburse payphone owners for calls originating from payphones. Thus, they may wish to block phone calls that originate from payphones. The present invention provides a mechanism for performing such blocking of calls.
Each customer may have the option to select which criteria is to be applied in determining whether a given call should be blocked. Examples of criteria include type of call, the identity of the payphone from which the call was initiated, geographic location of the payphone from which the call was initiated, time of day at which the call was initiated, day of the week at which the call was initiated, day of the year at which the call was initiated, rate of charges by the payphone and the like. These criteria may be applied separately, in combination or in any order when in making the determination whether to block a call.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a switch submits a query to a service control point (SCP). The query encapsulates an automatic number identification (ANI) for the site from which the call originated. The query also includes information that identifies whether the phone call originated from a payphone or not. If the query indicates that the call originated from a payphone, the SCP consults a database that is accessed by dialed number. The information obtained is used to determine what condition if any must be checked to determine if the call should be blocked. The SCP then makes a decision (based on the information in the database) regarding whether the call should be blocked and includes an indication of this decision in a communication that is passed back to the switch. The switch then blocks or routes the call to the appropriate destination as instructed by the communication from the SCP.